Amazon.com description: Product Description: Despite their status as the major literature of the medieval commoner, the ballads of the Middle Ages have remained generally inaccessible. The present collection provides for the first time a comprehensive selection of these important poems in modern translation, organized according to theme and accorded brief synopses of their sources, motifs, interpretive problems, and cross-references. Moreover, Prof. Morgan's critical introduction establishes a social and historical context for the ballads of chivalry and romance and a general framework for their reading.